Not sure what isn't "clean" about it. You could use a regular tcpsocket, connect to the smtp host/port and authenticate the user, but it's a lot more work and the user doesn't get the reassurance that something actually happened.

Thanks timhare,is there a way to authenticate the user with tcpsocket?

There is no one 'standard' way to authenticate an SMTP connection. Many mail servers use similar authentication mechanisms but it's up to the mailserver sysadmin, to configure the various options available. The 'trend' is slowly moving towards insisting on TLS encryption, before or after initial connection and authentication; for which you will need the TCPSecureSocket and a bunch of time to re-invent wheels.

I've almost created a VERY simple function that does this to a NON SSL/TLS SMTP server...Not much error checking going on since it's just a proof of concept...Not done yet but let me know if you need it..It uses Telnet in a shell

Here's the proof of concept thingy.It can check if a username and password is valid for a given NON SSL/TLS SMTP server It can be expanded to check SSL/TLS too but I didn't have time for that now.It can be improved a lot, but as I said, proof of concept..